Question 193·Medium·Transitions
In 2019, a mid-sized city introduced bus-only lanes along its busiest corridors to speed up commutes. Within months, average travel times for buses fell by nine minutes during peak hours. ______ weekday ridership increased by 18 percent compared with the previous year.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
For transition questions, first ignore the answer choices and decide how the ideas before and after the blank relate: cause-and-effect, contrast, similarity, example, etc. Then translate each transition word into its basic meaning (contrast, similarity, result, addition) and eliminate any that do not match the relationship you identified. Only after this meaning check should you pick the option that best fits the logical flow, not just what "sounds" good.
Hints
Check what happens in each clause
Read what happens before the blank (bus-only lanes and shorter travel times) and what happens after the blank (a change in ridership). Think about how these two ideas are connected.
Decide the logical relationship
Ask yourself: Is the second idea opposite to the first, similar to the first, or does it happen because of the first?
Match meanings of the transitions to that relationship
Recall that some transitions show contrast, some show similarity, and one shows that one event is the outcome of another. Eliminate options whose meanings do not fit the relationship you identified.
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the relationship between the two sentences
Read the two parts together:
- First: the city added bus-only lanes, and bus travel times fell by nine minutes.
- Second: weekday ridership increased by 18 percent.
Ask: Does the second part oppose the first, add a similar example, or show what happened because of the first? Here, the faster travel times likely help explain why more people rode the bus, which suggests a cause-and-effect relationship.
Classify the meaning of each transition word
Now think about what each option usually signals:
- "Nevertheless," shows contrast or an unexpected result ("even so").
- "Similarly," shows a similar situation or example ("in the same way").
- "By contrast," shows a clear difference or opposition ("in comparison, the opposite is true").
- One option shows that one thing happened because of another (a result of the earlier action).
Match the transition type to the passage
We decided that the passage needs a cause-and-effect transition: installing bus-only lanes made buses faster, and then ridership went up.
Only "As a result," clearly shows that the second fact (ridership increase) happened because of the first fact (faster bus travel). So the correct answer is D) As a result,.